About the Campaign

A Message from the Board of Trustees

August 2013

Dear Vassar alumnae/i, parents and friends,

The final figures are in, and, quite simply, you have astonished us with your outpouring of support for our College: The Vassar 150: World Changing campaign, which concluded on June 30, raised $431,456,710 in gifts and pledges, surpassing our goal by more than $31 million.

Our first priority is to say thank you to every Vassar alumna/us, parent and friend who played a role in this remarkable achievement … and there were many thousands of you – 29,217, to be exact, including 20,322 alumnae/i. Amazingly, nearly a quarter of this total was given during this past fiscal year – $104,003,652, by far the most donated to Vassar in a single year in the College’s history.

Such figures are impressive, but as President Cappy Hill has emphasized in her comments on the campaign, it is the meaning of these numbers that is so important. In keeping with the campaign’s name, such extraordinary generosity has changed, and is changing, the world of our students and our faculty on a daily basis. Here are brief highlights of what we all have achieved together:

Our students will reap the benefits of your generosity in many ways, most importantly in the area of scholarships and financial aid. $80.5 million was raised for this purpose, including $73.8 million for scholarship endowment, with 77 new named scholarships created to ensure a perpetual stream of income. This amount represents almost half the $165 million that was raised or pledged during the campaign and directed to Vassar’s endowment – an important investment in our College’s future.

The work of Vassar’s superb faculty also will be supported by the campaign’s success in a wide variety of ways. Perhaps most visibly, $44 million was raised for faculty and academic support, including more than $25 million given for endowed faculty, academic, technology and library funds. More than $8.5 million of these funds were dedicated to creating 5 new endowed faculty chairs.

In addition, a large portion of the funds raised through the campaign have been directed to capital improvements that will directly support the teaching and learning that takes place in the classroom. Among the nearly $82 million raised for facilities are:

$46 million raised for the new Integrated Science Center, permitting the start of a complex multiyear construction project that is now well under way, and will allow the quality of our science facilities to match that of our science teaching.

$35 million raised over the course of the campaign’s eight years (including the “silent phase” prior to the Sesquicentennial launch) for other important capital projects, such as renovations of Swift and Kenyon Halls (the former giving the History Department a splendidly renewed home), the Center for Drama and Film and the Wimpfheimer Nursery School, as well as the outdoor athletic complex at Prentiss Field. Also, major landscaping projects have taken place, or are about to, at Blodgett and Skinner Halls, and the top of Commencement Hill.

Last, but certainly not least, over the course of our campaign we have reminded you of the vital role played by Vassar’s Annual Fund in sustaining the College year in and year out. Because the Annual Fund represents the combined power of donors giving at all levels, it represented the single largest gift to the Vassar 150: World Changing campaign, with a remarkable $77.7 million raised in unrestricted support. This past year, for the first time, Vassar’s Annual Fund reached and exceeded the $10 million mark – to be exact, $10,302,670 from 9,803 donors.

All of these figures are a wonderful tribute to every donor, no matter the size of her or his gift. And having achieved the milestone of a $10 million Annual Fund, it is now vitally important we sustain that growth this year, and in the years to come.

Of the total amount of gifts and pledges to the campaign, about two-thirds has been received, with the remainder represented by outstanding pledges, in-kind and deferred gifts.

Our work supporting the College we love continues, but that said, our achievement – your achievement – is well worth taking a pause for celebration. So we will close with a lighthearted salute to all of you who can join us in saying, “We did it!”:http://youtu.be/KVPMuqtxHZ4